This is hands down one of the most absurdly brilliant books I’ve read in a while - it’s so fun, sparkling with silliness but with a lot of heart underneath.

The plot is absolute chaos, with a fast pace and quick chapters moving the story along as Lauren tries to figure out what the strange magic attack is up to. It turns from fear, to confusion, to shock to amusement and even enjoyment at her odd new life and endless supply of new and beautiful husbands. But of course, there’s a real bittersweet core there as Lauren tries to figure out what a perfect partner really means to her.

As the attic continues to switch out new husbands, we go through a series of hilarious, awkward, a little scary or embarrassing events with each man — all while trying to solve the mystery along with Lauren as it just gets more and more confusing. And of course, if she can’t solve it yet, she at least needs to find a decent one for her friends wedding next week or it’ll be ruined. There’s no complicated sci-fi or deep plot, just some fabulous fun and a lot of new men.

A delightfully bonkers romcom, original and refreshing - you’re bound to fall in love with the husbands.

A mesmerising read that drew me in from page 1. Beautiful author craft, a captivating story and some really great characters.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a breath of fresh air for me to read a lighter book after quite a few heavy ones, this was fun and I loved the concept! Lauren is single and after spending a night celebrating at her best friend’s hen party, she comes home to…a husband. He pops up to the attic and a different husband emerges. Lauren finds that each time a husband goes up to the attic, he is replaced with a new one. I found this book really engaging and light hearted, but the book asks - when you have an endless supply of something (think dating apps), how do you know that you’ve made the “right” choice and stop looking for more? I had no idea how the story could possibly end but the author managed to pull it off with the way it ended. This is a really fun, a bit silly, but thought-provoking read.

When I read about this concept, I thought I needed to read this book. What a concept! To have this space in the ceiling that just kept gifting you a new husband everyday - I had so many questions! How do you react to these new men? How are they connected? Will you know any of them? To read this and get the answers was alot of fun in this great debut.

As a concept for a book I really loved this idea. Honestly I thought when reading the premise it might be told in vignettes or short stories but not so much really as we see new men come in and out of her life and disappear into her ceiling. I feel like there could have been ways for this to be written that would have been incredibly original too as much as the plot is - or maybe slow down the place and they stay for longer, I'm not sure but I just felt like that was missing.

However Lauren is incredibly good protagonist and her reactions, googling and trying to figure out what was going on in a life that was constantly changing was really interesting and incredibly human, I also would freak out a little bit if some guy knew everything about me and was in my house and it made for fun reading - I don't think that is clear enough when this book is discussed maybe (I would recommend this for a holiday book or a book club, cos I would love to discuss this one).

I can't wait to see what this author does next, cos this is such a flash of an imagination that I would love to delve into deeper.

(I recieved an ARC from Netgalley for honest review).

The Husbands is a story about Lauren who upon returning from a night out finds a stranger in her home who claims to be her husband. What follows is Lauren discovering that every time a husband enters the loft a new one appears and she has no control of it.

The premise of the piqued my interest but unfortunately the execution fell a little short for me and it felt lacking in plot and at other times quite chaotic. Lauren is an unlikeable character that seems to spend the majority of the time bunking off work, complaining about the decor of the house and being relatively unpleasant because she knows she can send a husband to the attic and change it all.

I’d recommend this if you’re looking for something quick and easy and you can lean into the chaos and frivolity of it.

I didn't enjoy this one as much as I thought I would. I guess it was told in a different way than what I was expecting. It's not a bad idea for a book, but like I said, I guess I was just expecting something else.

I think this book had a lot of potentional but I think it lacked execution the plot was creative and really funny at times, but also I think around 50 percent of the book has hey where is this going vibes.

this book basically repeats its self over and over again so it is hard to find the plot even at the very end. for me it was missing a twist or major plot event besides the changing husbands.

however this book was entertaining and it was creative and I did laugh.

I really enjoyed the concept of this books, it’s really original and fun. At times I wondered if the concept was enough for a full novel, but it defied my expectations and stayed fresh and intriguing throughout. As in real life, there are moments of real humour and despair. It was an easy and fun read which I’ll definitely be recommending to customers, and I’ll be looking forward to reading more of Holly’s work.

I LOVED this book. It is so so funny and brilliantly unique. Lauren wakes up one morning with not only a hangover but with a husband! A husband she cannot remember. if you need a laugh or want to escape with a fun and light hearted read this is the perfect book for you.

'You can't stay in married to someone forever just because they climb out of your attic one afternoon'.

Lauren stumbles home one night, a bit worse for wear, after a night out for her best friend's Hen's Do. Wanting nothing more than to tumble into bed, she's astonished to find a man coming down the attic stairs. A man she doesn't know but one who seems to know her, very well. In fact, it seems to be her husband? That is, until, he climbs back up to change the light bulb, only for a different husband to come back down. What the? As she watches the interior of her apartment change as well as her surname on the post by the door, it becomes clear that the attic has become some type of husband vending machine. 'Every husband is someone that she might - if things had just been a little bit different, if she'd gone to a particular party or worn a particular coast or looked in a particular direction - have married'. As Lauren catches on, exchanging husbands and re-setting her life becomes fun - until it becomes a serious concern...

'The Husbands' is such a fun premise and some of the scenarios are hilarious. It would have been great to learn more about Lauren's relationship history and therefore why the attic is manifesting different men for her to learn something from. However, it is such a light-hearted, unique read, I'm sure many will enjoy the story.

'She's had so many lives, and some of them were bad, but a lot of them were good, and maybe there isn't a single best path forward that she has to find'.

Okay, so I received this as an arc from @vintagebooks a month after the actual publication date, but who am I to say no to a book?😂 Honestly, I had a great time reading this and am grateful for the NetGalley digital copy.

The premise of the book was clever and refreshingly original — one husband disappears, and another appears in his place. And they just keep coming😂 The story balanced humour and chaos really well. Bohai was a standout character — their friendship dynamic brought a lot of charm and heart. Some plot twists genuinely caught me off guard, but while the ending made sense, it felt a bit abrupt (therefore, 4.5 stars, but rounded up to 5 here).

Overall, it was still a fun, fast-paced read with a unique concept that kept me hooked. I can’t wait to read more from Holly Gramazio!😍

A seriously funny novel that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Yes it’s a bit chaotic however if you just lean into the madness you’ll be laughing in no time. Be sure to check your attics for extra husbands!

I have not enjoyed reading anything in about a month. It’s been a perfect combination of lack of motivation and concentration.

That was until this morning, when I picked up this book and found that it was everything I was missing. The Husbands follows Laura, an early thirties singleton living in South London, who gets home from a night out to find that she has a husband. A husband that she has never met before, yet pictures of them both line walls of their shared flat. A man who has a relationship with her family and friends, whom her nephew fondly calls Uncle Michael. Obviously stunned, Laura tries to get to grips with how this could be, but before she can start to comprehend any of it, he goes into the attic to change a lightbulb and returns a different, new husband. Her attic is magic and replaces her ‘husband’ with a new man every time he enters it.

This book is HILARIOUS. It’s well written, it’s full of a wonderful cast of characters and is just bringing me so much joy. Lots of people suggested romance to ease myself back into reading but I find most romance so hit or miss. This one feels like the perfect, near-romance without having to put up with all the gushy stuff. I think this is the perfect book for diminishing any reading slump.

I think it drops off a bit around 70% mark but would still very highly recommend for anyone looking for a laugh. It was such a fun reading experience and such a fun concept too.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Imagine a world where, whenever you're done with your current spouse, you simply tuck them away and—presto!—a fresh one arrives. Intriguing, right? That concept alone was more than enough to pull me in.
At the outset, I was completely on board. The book promised an inventive twist on domestic life with a speculative flair, and I was ready for a smart, quirky exploration of identity and relationships. The opening delivered just that—engaging, witty, and offbeat in all the right ways. I was flipping pages with enthusiasm, eager to see where it would lead.
But somewhere along the way, the narrative seemed to lose its bearings. What felt like a clever satire began to drift aimlessly. The protagonist’s repeated partner-swapping turned from curious to chaotic, and the plot started spiraling into territory that felt more bizarre than meaningful. Rather than building toward clarity or transformation, the story wandered in circles.
I kept waiting for a pivot—some emotional resonance or deeper revelation—but instead, things just escalated into absurdity. The tone shifted from sharp to scattered, and by the final chapters, it felt like the story had simply run out of things to say. There was an ending, technically, but it lacked the satisfying sense of evolution or closure I’d been hoping for.
It’s disappointing when a book with such a standout idea doesn’t quite stick the landing. The promise was there, the foundation was strong, but in the end, it felt like a creative experiment that didn’t know how to finish itself.

The Husbands is a clever, heartwarming, and surprisingly funny novel that caught me off guard in a rather surprising way. The beginning feels chaotic, but once the story settles, it unfolds into something truly special. With humor, heart, and a satisfying ending, it’s a read I genuinely recommend.

Hmmmm, I do like a fair bit of silliness, but this one wasn't for me. I can't think of anything that was nice or kind about Lauren. The book is mostly about all the husbands that keep coming from the attic, her calling in sick at work all the time when she wanted some time to herself (or simply not showing up, because she couldn't be bothered), her not liking the guys who keep turning up, her not complaining about the decoration of her house, and so it goes. She seems more connected to her houseplants than any of her friends or relatives.

There might be a hidden message about how nowadays we are struggling to keep up with our deafening and demanding society, that we can always to better or should be doing better, or even pretend to have all sorts of things to show off, with the risks of FOMO and FOBO, perhaps Lauren was being petty and particular for that exact reason.., but I didn't got that.

Instead, The Husbands is about an able-bodied woman who fakes her own sickness and hopes for a nice guy who happens to be her husband and be supportive of her suffering, but rather not too oppressive thank you very much, something like that. And who literally makes some of them ill, and cannot deal with providing care for one being seriously injured. Ableism, perhaps. Because the bottom line in real life is that most people cannot handle other people's discomfort and with that this makes Lauren a real-life character? So yeah, I'm quite confused.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book.

I was keen to read it this book, intrigued by the storyline as Lauren finds herself faced with husband after husband, emerging in various guises from her attic. There is humour, pathos and romance.
However, there are so many husbands it's hard to keep track of them as they seem to arrive thick and fast.
The longer it went on the more I wanted to race to the end to see how this would all resolve itself. And to find out why this was happening. The ending was slightly disappointing but I still loved the book. The idea is ingenious and raises a lot of questions. What are we looking for in a husband? And imagine if you could just exchange a dud one for another?!

I thought the premise of this book sounded great and really enjoyed the first few chapters.
Lauren comes home from a hen night to a strange man in her apartment. It turns out he's her husband, whom she has no recollection of. When he goes up to the loft, he comes back as a completely new husband.
Lauren goes through a huge number of husbands, encouraging them up to the lift when they get on her nerves.
It started off as fun and novel but I felt it got repetitive and didn't seem to be going anywhere other than another new husband.
Overall, I found it quite disappointing.

A seriously fun read! I actually absolutely loved this lighter read that kept me 100% engaged from beginning to end..
What a brilliant concept: having a magic attic that every time you send your husband up into a new one emerges! It must have been so entertaining to brain storm all the different husbands and the various back stories. I am seeing Holly Gramazio at Hay Festival in May - looking forward to hearing her discuss her writing process.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

The premise of THE HUSBANDS is such a lot of fun, and I greatly admired the writing. As such I flew through it in a day. Having now thought about it for another day, it’s not the ending that’s stuck with me but other parts of the book, so maybe the speed or the unresolved nature of the ending isn’t quite my thing.